Projector Torture Test: LCD versus DLP

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A few weeks ago, Texas Instruments stopped by to tell us about a study they conducted over the past year with the Munsell Color Science Laboratory at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The study was designed to compare long term reliability of LCD and DLP projectors, and discovered what appears to be real problems with LCD technology.

TI is one of many sponsors of the Munsell lab, and helped fund the test. And since TI developed DLP technology, you’re likely inclined to take these results with a grain of salt. However, the results are certainly interesting.

Running from May 2002 to March 2003, the Munsell Lab ran the show. The findings were first disclosed in mid-March, and since then we’ve seen various newsgroups discuss the study. However, we haven’t seen much of the industry respond, so we contacted Epson, NEC, HP, and InFocus to get their take as well.

Before conducting the torture test, TI polled end users to discover how long they expected a projector to last before the picture quality degraded – aside from replacing bulbs. Nearly 70% of those polled expected a projector to last at least three years before picture problems might occur.

How much would users pay for longer life? TI found that on average IT buyers would pay a 20% premium for double the lifetime. LCD image degradation hasn’t been a big problem so far, according to TI, because many users have upgraded their older projectors fairly frequently because of technology improvements and increased resolutions. But TI believes that today’s XGA projectors have such a strong feature-set that businesses will use them for much longer than past units. And that means any degradation is more likely to show up with these projectors than with past models.

The test results are eye-opening – so turn the page and let’s explore how they tested and what they found.

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